The highly anticipated independent review of lockout laws in New South Wales led by the former high court judge Ian Callinan has suggested the laws could be relaxed by half an hour to allow entertainment venues to remain open until 2am, and to serve alcohol until 3.30am.
The lockout laws were introduced to Sydney’s CBD and Kings Cross precincts in 2014 after several high-profile alcohol-related assaults and deaths, and saw 1.30am lockout and 3am last drinks measures introduced.
In February, the NSW government announced Callinan would lead an independent review of the measures. The move followed a backlash from some venues and entertainers who said the laws had diminished the city’s nightlife, led to live music venue closures and cost performers their jobs.
While Callinan’s review found those views had been considered, he also said the submissions from emergency workers responding to alcohol-related violence and injuries, and who largely supported the lockout laws owing to a reduction in assaults and emergency department presentations, should be seriously valued.
“Of all the groups holding opinions, it seems to me that the medical profession and the emergency workers have the least or no self-interest,” he wrote.
“Their opinion, formed on the frontline as it were, must carry a great deal of weight. On the other hand, autonomy of the individual and freedom of movement and choice are important aspirations.”
He found that while the lockout laws had led to a reduction in opportunities for live performers, “I do not understand why why some of those opportunities have not migrated to other areas or other times”.
“I am not satisfied that all providers and customers have done all they could to adapt their programs and habits respectively, at least to reduce the impact of the amendments upon them,” he found.
However, Callinan added that for a trial period of two years, genuine entertainment venues in the precincts could be permitted to open until 2am, and to serve alcohol in those parts until 3.30am, “so long as live entertainment is being generally continuously offered throughout the evening until then”.
People across New South Wales should also be permitted to buy takeaway alcohol until 11pm, rather than the current 10pm – a rule that was widely criticised when it was brought in.
“It needs to be understood again however that such a relaxation carries the risk of greater density and consumption of more alcohol in the precincts,” the report found.
While pedestrian traffic had been reduced through the precincts since lockout laws were introduced, Callinan also found that prior to the laws, “vibrancy was unfortunately however, accompanied ... by a degree of antisocial, and in the residents’ terms, squalid and sleazy behaviour”.
A report released last month by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (Fare) and which analysed data from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar) found that non-domestic assaults during the lockout period had reduced by 70.2% in Kings Cross and 30.7% in the CBD on weekend nights, and by 75.5% in Kings Cross and 41.5% in the CBD after last drinks were called at 3am.
The president of Fare, Michael Thorn, told Guardian Australia that Callinan’s report was thorough and had found the lockout law measures were valid in meeting the government’s objective of reducing alcohol-related violence.
He said he supported the heavy conditions suggested by Callinan for any relaxation of the lockout laws, including assessing applications on a case-by-case basis and restricting extensions only to genuine entertainment venues.
“The report largely confirms what public health and law enforcement professionals have said all along,” he said. “The report should now be used as making a case for state-wide application of last drinks measures, including to regional centres.”
Callinan’s report was expected last month, but it was handed down on Tuesday after he requested an extension to scrutinise about 1,800 submissions from the public and stakeholders.
Despite seeking data from the relevant agencies, Callinan said he could find no evidence that tourist numbers to the precincts had decreased. While other submissions had argued creatives had left Sydney for Melbourne as a result of the laws, Callinan found it was not possible to verify or contradict these claims.
He also warned against exaggerating the impact of the laws on unemployment and vibrancy of nightlife.
“On all of the evidence that I have reviewed, and having regard particularly to the statistics objectively collated and professionally analysed by Boscar, and the informed police and medical evidence based on actual experience, I have formed the view that the two precincts at night were grossly overcrowded, violent, noisy, and in places dirty, before the amendments, but that after them, they were transformed into much safer, quieter and cleaner areas,” Callinan concluded.
“I understand that the objectives of the amendments were to achieve these ends. Those policy objectives are, to answer the statutory question, in my opinion valid.”
